The present invention relates to cutlery which emits a sound emulating the human voice. The invention is useful in teaching children and others proper eating habits, as well as in providing educational information and entertainment to a user during a meal.
Eating utensils which provide sensory cues to a user are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,673 to DiGirolamo et al. discloses a utensil with light or tone-emitting diodes inside the utensil handle, designed to enable the user to develop better eating habits. The light or tone helps a user to eat more slowly.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,839,793 to Crapio discloses a utensil with means for activating lights in a clown face located on the surface of the utensil. U.S. Pat. No. 1,189,897 to Wilkes discloses a child's utensil with a hollow chamber and a striker in the chamber designed to make a rattling noise when the utensil is used. The sensory cues provided by the prior art are limited to simple cues, such as lights and non-speech sounds.
Means for synthesizing human speech also are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,335 to Rumsey utilizes a voice synthesizer to enable speech to be generated from a doll or toy. U.S. Pat. No. 4,857,030 to Rose utilizes speech synthesizer technology to make dolls appear to intelligently converse. The dolls signal to each other via radio transmissions and emit responses in human speech. U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,997 to Kudo et al. discloses a small sound generating device for use in dolls or toys, which generates sound, but does not synthesize human speech.
Heretofore, it has not been known to employ synthesized human speech in small objects, such as cutlery, to provide educational information or entertainment.